We may, in fact, go so far as to say that the writings of Euripides give no evidence of any essential advance in economic civilization over that of the Homeric Age as portrayed in the Iliad and in the Odyssey. But Euripides' tragedies do show a great advance in political and religious thought, in moral and social standards, in intellectual life, over the earlier literature. Had there, therefore, been any great economic revolution or any steady economic advance they should have portrayed it too.
Euripides' political passages reflect especially the life of the ancient city state in which he "lived and moved and had his being." He injects fifth century politics into tenth century mythology and treats the Athens of Theseus, the Thebes of Oedipus, and the Sparta of Menelaus, as if they were the cities of his own day. The intense love or the Greek for the soil of his native town and the pangs and woe of exile are eloquently portrayed. Mothers sacrifice their daughters as well as their sons for their country's good; and duty to the state is often urged, sometimes in terms, however, which imply that many were derelict in their duty. Athens in particular is glorified in many places, Sparta is censured more than once, and heralds or the envoys of other cities are several times represented in an unfavorable light. Several passages about generalship suggest that there was considerable dissatisfaction at Athens with the conduct of Peloponnesian War. Tyranny and liberty, running for office, the city populace and its traits, freedom of speech, the power of debate and oratory in the law courts and in politics, demagogs, and the requisites of good citizenship, are other topics treated.
But Euripides' view at times broadens beyond the individual city state and he several times speaks of devotion to Hellas as a whole and of the common law of the Hellenes or a sort of international law between the various Greek cities. This is partly in opposition to the barbarians, who are almost always mentioned unfavorably. They are cowards in war, are slaves politically compared to the Greeks, have immoral customs which Hellas does not tolerate and in general have strange ways and dress. They are even made to speak of themselves as barbarians.
The supremely complacent self-satisfaction of the Hellene with himself as compared with the barbarians and his absolute conviction that he is immeasurably superior to them, a conviction even surpassing that of the English traveler on the continent—sometimes is expressed in such absurd terms that it seems possible that Euripides is slyly poking fun at it. Iphigenia about to escape from Colchis at the eastern end of the Black Sea and return to Greece beseeches the goddess Artemis, whose shrine she has been tending among the Tauri, "graciously abandon this barbarian land for Athens. For it does not become you to dwell here when so fine a city may be thine." And Jason, who had repaid Medea for saving his life and aiding him to steal the
—13—
